Nadene Goldfoot
Egypt is such a friend who has inadvertently and even at times with certain people, profited from the deaths of Israelis. They had a population of 111 million people in 2022. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The 69 year old has been president of Egypt since 2014; for the past 10 years.
Take the Rafah Crossing. Four months ago, The Guardian Org. wrote about what it took for a Palestinian to use this crossing. The Rafah Border Crossing is the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine's Gaza Strip. It is located on the Egypt–Palestine border.
On 7 September 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and closed the Rafah crossing. The Philadelphi Accord between Israel and Egypt, based on the principles of the 1979 peace treaty, turned over border control to Egypt, while the supply of arms to the Palestinian Authority (the PA) was subject to Israeli consent. The agreement specified that 750 Egyptian border guards would be deployed along the length of the border, and both Egypt and Israel pledged to work together to stem terrorism, arms smuggling, and other illegal cross-border activities.
Perhaps Israel has been very busy lately fighting off Hamas and now they have allowed terrorists, arms smuggling, and other illegal activities to take place.
"Palestinians desperate to flee Gaza pay thousands in bribes to ‘brokers.’Fixers with alleged links to Egyptian intelligence are making a fortune in ‘fees’ from people hoping to exit through the Rafah crossing".
Israel is aware that this has been going on. "Talks between Israel, Egypt and the United States aimed at reopening the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt remain at an impasse over Israel’s refusal to accept any involvement from the Palestinian Authority in the management of the border terminal, according to a US and an Israeli official".
Israel, Egypt and the US held a high-level meeting on Sunday to discuss the issue, which the State Department claimed had been constructive, but the two officials speaking to The Times of Israel on Friday said Israel and Egypt remain at odds.
Why it matters:
Reopening the crossing on the border of Egypt and Gaza, preventing Hamas from smuggling weapons into the Strip from Egypt and maintaining a tenuous peace between Israel and Egypt are top priorities for the Biden administration. This is the major reason for Israel as well.
They don't trust the PA, either who might smuggle weapons for Hamas. "During a meeting of Israel's security cabinet ahead of the talks in Egypt, Netanyahu said he doesn't agree to any role for the Palestinian Authority at the Rafah crossing, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting".
During a meeting of Israel's security cabinet ahead of the talks in Egypt, Netanyahu said he doesn't agree to any role for the Palestinian Authority at the Rafah crossing, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.
The Gaza Strip has been home to smugglers from time immemorial, but Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement and withdrawal created a new dynamic. In the aftermath of the replacement of Israeli soldiers along the Egyptian border by Palestinian Authority security forces, smuggling increased slightly. Following the collapse of the Palestinian unity government and the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, however, arms smuggling spiked dramatically -- whereas prior to Israel's disengagement approximately one ton of weapons was smuggled in each year, under Hamas's rule the figure has been closer to one hundred tons per year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafah_Border_Crossing#:~:text=The%20Rafah%20Border%20Crossing%20(Arabic,on%20the%20Egypt%E2%80%93Palestine%20border.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/08/palestinians-flee-gaza-rafah-egypt-border-bribes-to-brokers
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/hamas-arms-smuggling-egypts-challenge
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